Watcher
by Miss-Sapphy
Summary: Watcher gives a snapshot into the mind of O'Brien, who has been assigned to watch Winston since long before Winston committed his first thought-crime.


**1984 Creative Response**

Winston left the apartment. O'Brian flicked the switch on the wall to turn the telescreen back on. He walked slowly over to his desk and sat down. The telescreen was giving a report on the latest campaigns by the Junior Anti-Sex League. O'Brian listened to the voice babble on about the new posters and slogans that they were using. The sound was comforting. He hated turning the telescreen off; the silence was unnatural and always made him nervous.

He smiled as he put the papers on his desk back into the draw. That girl, Julia, had looked mildly impressed when he had spoken the meaningless but important-sounding half-words into the speakwrite. Using nonexistent Newspeak words always impressed the slightly stupid members of the Outer Party.

The door opened and Martin came in. He began to clear away the wine glasses standing on the table. O'Brian pulled the speakwrite towards himself and said,

'7631, Crawford L'. The picture on the telescreen changed to show an apartment typical of those lived in by Outer Party members. In it a man was sitting on his bed and staring out the window. He was thin and balding, with a blank expression on his face. O'Brian watched intently as the man, Leo, stood up. He walked into the kitchen, poured himself a glass of Victory Gin, drank it and then sat back down on the bed. _Good,_ thought O'Brian, _he's settling in well. _He had been watching Leo for almost ten years. He had seen Leo follow the cycle that many others had completed.

It had, as always, started with just one thought: the thought that life would be better without the Party. Over ten years, that thought developed (with only a little bit of help from O'Brian) into major thoughtcrime. It was thoughtcrime to such a large extent that O'Brian had finally been able to bring Leo into the Ministry of Love to be cured, to be saved from insanity. It gave him a lot of pleasure to have been the one to save Leo and it pleased him to see Leo now, completely cured and rehabilitated back into society.

O'Brian stayed there for a while, just watching. What an honour it was that _he_ was the one who taught Leo to love Big Brother, the Party and everything they did.

It wasn't until a few days after meeting with Winston that O'Brian had a chance to see Hutch. Hutch was a master of disguises and was often assigned to aid O'Brian in the catching of thought-criminals. He was young (in his early thirties), had black hair and was capable of changing his appearance to look like almost anyone. O'Brian was sure that, had he wanted to, Hutch would have been able to transform himself into Big Brother and no-one would have been able to tell the difference between him and the real thing.

Hutch was currently living in a shabby part of the prole quarters. It was a downside to his job that he had to put up with, to live so close to the proles. He was living in a ratty building down one of the backstreets. The place was dim, dusty and in bad need of a new coat of paint. It was filled with odds and ends collected off the street. The workers had done an excellent job making it look like an old, run down antique store.

Hutch was out the back, dressed in his current disguise of an old prole named Charrington. Charrington was an essential part of O'Brian's strategy to catch Winston. He provided a place for Winston to meet with Julia, and the place where O'Brian would finally spring his trap.

'I have set the day,' O'Brian said to Hutch. 'It will be a week or so after Hate Week, when he is here with the girl. Do it when he has read the book, or part of it.'

'How do you want me to catch them?' asked Hutch with a grin on his face.

'Any way you like, you know what to do,' replied O'Brian.

Martin opened the door and showed in the guest.

'Good afternoon O'Brian!' called the guest.

'Only for some, comrade Greeves,' said O'Brian. 'Are you here to discuss Julia?'

'Of course, who else would we discuss?' Greeves was the person assigned to watch, catch, cure and kill Julia, although O'Brian had taken over when she became involved with Winston. Even though Greeves was no longer watching Julia, he still liked to keep and eye on her. 'What have you planned for her?

'I'm not permitted to say, you know that,' said O'Brian. 'But you may watch if you wish.'

'I will then,' said Greeves. Martin appeared to show him the way out.

'Be sure to be watching a week after Hate Week!' O'Brian called after him. He went back to what he'd been doing before Greeves had arrived. He turned his attention to the telescreen on the wall.

It showed a man of about thirty-six. His name was Norman and he was O'Brian's newest thought-criminal. He had only recently begun to think bad things. He had been a well-respected man before he became a thought-criminal. He worked in the Ministry of Plenty, one of the many people who spent their days repairing all the machinery used by the Ministry to produce various items. He one day noticed that the figures announced on the telescreens were not right. From there, his traitorous thoughts had been multiplying. He was still unsure if his suspicions were true but O'Brian had already arranged for him to find 'evidence' of the Party's lies.

Norman was fixing a large machine that produced buttons. He was a diligent worker who also volunteered three nights a week to make posters, banners and displays in preparation for Hate Week. This he did every year but O'Brian had noticed that he did it with a lot less enthusiasm this year than he had in the past. O'Brian watched the telescreen for a while longer, and then moved on to other things.

Hate Week was a busy time for everyone, including O'Brian. This was the one week of the year when no-one was doing their usual work and everything was chaos. There were so many parades, lectures and spontaneous demonstrations that it was sometimes hard to keep track of all three thought-criminals at once. He had to make sure all went as planned with Winston. One of O'Brian's underlings had been assigned to give Winston the book on the sixth day of Hate Week. It was going to be in the moment of confusion, chaos and war fever straight after it was announced that the war had changed that the underling would give Winston the briefcase containing the book. It had all been perfectly arranged but there was still a slight chance that something could go wrong.

O'Brian also had to keep a close watch on Leo over the week. Although he had been completely cured by O'Brian himself, there was still the possibility of a relapse, particularly during Hate Week, when emotions were going crazy and the whole city was in chaos.

It worked! Winston had received the book and had begun reading it. O'Brian had been annoyed that he hadn't read it straight away, but Winston had been worked very hard at the Ministry of Truth to change all records of the war. It had been a long wait, but O'Brian had already waited seven years for Winston to have reached a point where he could be cured and a few more days wouldn't matter.

Winston was reading the book now. O'Brian was watching him on the telescreen. The girl had fallen asleep. Her intelligence was too limited for her to understand the content of the book. On the telescreen, Winston was also going to sleep. Hutch had told O'Brian that he would strike some time that day, but exactly what time had not been said. O'Brian stayed watching them for several hours. He was tired and needed to sleep but he did not want to miss the capture of Winston.

Time crept slowly by. Minute after minute dragged past. Nothing happened on the telescreen. Then, finally, Winston woke up. His movement also woke Julia. They both got out of bed, still naked.

'We are the dead,' said Winston.

'We are the dead,' said Julia.

Then they both froze as Hutch's voice repeated the sentence from the telescreen. The picture fell off the wall. A look of terror was on both their faces. O'Brian laughed to see them looked so horrified. He grabbed his briefcase and hurried over to the Ministry of Love to await their arrival.

He did not have to wait for long. They were both brought in and placed in separate cells. O'Brian saw the workers of the Ministry enter both cells, dressed as Party members and common criminals. He watched Winston's reactions when Parsons, his neighbour, was sent in. Parsons was no actor, but he wasn't a real thought-criminal either. They simply needed him to play a part and so had told him that his daughter had betrayed him. He would be sent to a forced labour camp for a few years and then released back to society, just for the sake of consistency.

Winston was beginning to look haggard and tired. Soon the time would come for him to meet with O'Brian, then he could finally be cured. First, Winston's body and spirit would be broken. He would be beaten, healed and beaten again. He would be continually questioned until he confessed everything and all things. Then, O'Brian would take over and cure him forever.

O'Brian had been waiting for this day for seven years. He stood up and walked to the door of Winston's cell. Two black-uniformed guards stood behind him. The door opened and Winston jumped up.

'They got you too!' he cried.

'They got me a long time ago.' O'Brian replied. He motioned to the guard. Winston's curing had begun.


End file.
